Ardupilot Instructions

Hardware Setup

Wiring

The ARK Flow is connected to the CAN bus using a Pixhawk standard 4 pin JST GH cable. For more information, refer to the CAN Wiring instructions.

Multiple sensors can be connected by plugging additional sensors into the ARK Flow's second CAN connector.

Mounting

The recommended mounting orientation is with the connectors on the board pointing towards back of vehicle, as shown in the following picture.

Flight Controller Parameters

Connect the ARK Flow to the flight controller's CAN port and set the following in Mission Planner, then reboot the flight controller.

Required

Parameter

Value

Description

CAN_P1_DRIVER

Enable CAN port 1 driver

CAN_D1_PROTOCOL

Set protocol to DroneCAN

FLOW_TYPE

DroneCAN optical flow

RNGFND1_TYPE

DroneCAN range finder

RNGFND1_MAX

3000

Range finder maximum range (cm) — set to 30 m

RNGFND1_ADDR

sensor ID

Sensor ID of the rangefinder

RNGFND1_RECV_ID

node ID

CAN node ID of the ARK Flow

Optional

Parameter

Description

FLOW_POS_X / FLOW_POS_Y / FLOW_POS_Z

ARK Flow offset from the vehicle center of gravity (meters). For example, if the sensor is mounted 2 cm forward and 5 cm below the frame's center of rotation, set FLOW_POS_X to 0.02 and FLOW_POS_Z to 0.05

FlowHold does not require the use of a rangefinder.

CAN Node Parameters

Optical flow and range finder messages are published by the ARK Flow by default — no CAN node parameters are required for those streams.

Set the following on the sensor and reboot the node. CAN node parameters can be configured using either:

QGroundControl — each CAN node appears as a separate Component X entry under Vehicle Settings > Parameters.
The DroneCAN GUI Tool.

Optional

Parameter

Description

CANNODE_TERM

Set to 1 if this is the last node on the CAN bus

CANNODE_PUB_IMU

Set to 1 to publish RawIMU messages on the CAN bus

ArduPilot Setup Instructions

PreviousARK Flow NextPX4 Instructions

Last updated 1 month ago